Three’s lucky for McDaniel
Kolb leads defense, Massucci paces offense in 24-14 win at Catholic
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Chris Kolb (Keymar, Md./Francis Scott Key) helped McDaniel to a 3-0 record with three interceptions, three pass breakups and three tackles in a 24-14 win at Catholic in non-conference football action on Saturday.
The Green Terror (3-0) has its most complete offensive day of the season to help the stalwart defense, rolling up a season-high 312 yards of offense behind Tom Massucci's (Seneca, N.J./Tabernacle) sixth career 200-yard passing game. Massucci completed 21 of 32 passes for 235 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Greg Cordivari paced the Cardinals (2-1) with 200 yards passing, completing 22 of 36 passes with two touchdowns and three interceptions – all to Kolb, who had as many or more catches than all by two Catholic receivers.
Kolb's three-interception day was the most by a Green Terror player since Marvin Deal picked off three Muhlenberg passes on Oct. 5, 1996.
Diego Weiner (Miami, Fla./Riverside Military Academy [Ga.]) and Zach Martin (Clarksville, Md./River Hill) each made a career-high 10 tackles.
After three consecutive three-and-out drives to open the game, McDaniel took over at its own 38-yard line with 10:55 to play in the first quarter.
A mix of Ray O'Hara (Yardley, Pa./Conwell-Egan Catholic) rushes and Massucci passes, capped by a 10-yard strike to Matt Cahill (Broomall, Pa./Haverford Twp.) on the seventh play of the drive to give the Green Terror a 7-0 lead with 7:23 on the clock.
A 15-play, 80-yard Cardinal march on their first possession of the second quarter finished with a 12-yard Anthony Gibbs touchdown to even the scored with 8:17 to play until intermission.
Receptions of 15 yards by Tom Orrok (Point Pleasant, N.J./Point Pleasant) and 17 yards by O'Hara coupled with a roughing-the-passer penalty moved the ball into field goal range and Jake Nichols (Frederick, Md./Gov. Thomas Johnson) converted his third field-goal attempt of the season with a 25-yarder to give the Green Terror the lead with 1:28 showing in the half.
After Cahill returned the second-half kickoff 36 yards to his own 43, the offense sputtered out of the gate.
The teams exchanged three-and-outs before McDaniel took over at its own 48 with 12:09 showing.
Doing the majority of the work through the air, the Green Terror made it a 17-7 game just 5 minutes, 18 seconds later on a Cahill seven-yard reception in the front corner of the end zone for his second career two-touchdown day.
A 48-yard Andrew Ouellette kickoff return put Catholic at the McDaniel 35. The offense needed just six plays and 2:53 to once again pull within three on a Lawrence DeSimone 21-yard touchdown catch.
Taking over at the Catholic 42 to 13:44 to play, Joe Rollins (Temple Hills, Md./Surrattsville) did most of the work on a 5-play drive that stretched the lead back to 10.
Two of his three rushes for nine of his 10 yards opened the drive before he turned a screen pass into a 30-yard scamper to the end zone for his first collegiate score.
Cahill finished with five catches for 67 yards while CJ Billera (Allentown, Pa./Emmaus) had six receptions for 47 yards in the Green Terror's third straight win to start the season – the first time the squad has done that since 2005.
A week after having 14 tackles for the loss, the McDaniel defense recorded another eight, including four sacks.
The Green Terror returns to action at home against Dickinson on Saturday. Game time is 1 p.m.
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